This archive report was first published on 22 November 2019.
On the edge of vast forested conservation areas in West Africa, a long-standing government ban on gold mining in protected reserves was quietly overturned in mid-2018. Men wearing turbans, armed with assault rifles, rode into the area in eastern Burkina Faso, bordering the Sahel, a belt of scrubland south of the Sahara Desert.
Government troops and rangers fled as the armed men, who called themselves 'our masters,' allowed residents to mine in the protected areas. They demanded a cut of the gold, bought and traded it, and fed the miners, encouraging them to dig in violation of government bans.
The men's actions were part of a larger campaign by local insurgents and regional jihadi groups in Burkina Faso. The violence has killed hundreds of people, including at least 39 gold mine workers ambushed on a road earlier this month. Dozens of robberies and kidnappings have been reported that target mining.
According to an analysis of data from Burkina Faso and testimony from people who have fled mining areas, extremist groups have tapped into the $2 billion informal gold trade in the region. The gold is smuggled to neighboring countries, particularly Togo, to avoid export taxes, and then flown to refineries before being exported to countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Switzerland, and India.
Researchers and the United Nations have warned of the risks of armed extremists reaching the region's gold mines. The militants' advance has traced a route from the north towards the south and the east of the country, according to the analysis, which mapped their movements and mining areas with help from the US-based Countering Wildlife Trafficking Institute.
It is hard to say how much gold the mines produce or exactly who controls them, but the sums involved are huge. In 2018, government officials visited just 24 sites near where attacks had taken place and estimated they produced a total of 727 kg of gold per year – worth about $34 million at current prices.
